THE MASTER-BUILDER 227 



the last. The impulse in Nature is onward, and her 

 light shines ahead. The more we learn, the more she 

 has to teach. Nothing in her is an end to itself; 

 everything is a beginning for something else. Thus, 

 while you shudder to-day at the fancied impiety which 

 claims kinship with a lesser creature of yesterday, so 

 to-morrow may a greater being shudder at the impiety 

 which claims kinship with you. Nevertheless, I know 

 how that greater thing will admit your kinship with 

 pride, for it is but a mean order of life that goes in 

 shame of its origin. Why should we hold that man 

 alone of all created beings is an end to himself and 

 not a beginning to others ? From us a greater than 

 we are shall arise. Give Nature time ; that is all she 

 asks. Consider how long it took to fashion us, and 

 grudge none of the unnumbered ages that it may 

 require to improve upon us. Who will dare estimate 

 the period asked to set the round world in its matrix 

 of space and make sure foot-hold, fin-hold, wing-hold, 

 for the earth-born hosts ? Who can affirm the awful 

 duration of ages that elapsed before we were called to 

 play our part ? And is Nature weary ? Are the laws 

 of evolution accomplished ? Was mere conscious 

 existence, as displayed in an inferior animal, their end 

 and goal ? 



A thrush in a green larch at dawn is good : but 

 there was a time before thrush or larch ; there will 

 come a day when thrush and larch are not, and when 

 better things burst into song and into bud for a greater 

 than man to enjoy. Most true is it that the Master- 



